Necessary misapplications: the work of translation in performance in an era of global asymmetries

The moment the concept of translation is employed with reference to theatre or music and performance, i.e., to a form that includes but exceeds language, the concept becomes detached from its conventional sense and is made to travel, it acquires other dimensions, becoming what Gayatri Spivak terms ‘catachrestic’, a necessary misapplication. To consider translation across cultures or performance forms or idioms, i.e., across global and historical asymmetries, is to call into question the obstinate idea that translation can ever be about finding equivalences and equilibrium between languages or cultures. Rather, the work of translation is about drawing different world-making projects into one another in the textures of performance, transforming both the features of the performance as well as the required means of its appreciation. By way of a response to the performance Legacy (2015) by Ivorian choreographer and performer Nadia Beugré, the article reflects on the work of translation in an era of global incommensurability.